S.D. School Trustee Pressures SDSU For Policy Change

Audio

Aired 10/6/09

A San Diego Unified school trustee is calling on San Diego State University officials to restore the campus' local student admission guarantee.

SAN DIEGO  Editor’s note: Since this story aired, there was a factual correction made. KPBS incorrectly reported low-income students were guaranteed admission. SDSU’s admissions policy gave students south of state Route 56 or in Imperial guaranteed admission.

A San Diego Unified school trustee is calling on San Diego State University officials to restore the campus' local student admission guarantee.

San Diego State is ending its local student admissions guarantee for the 2010 fall semester. The seven-year-old policy gave students south of state Route 56 or in Imperial guaranteed admission.

College officials say the university is cutting back on student enrollment at all levels, and this program was just one of the casualties.

But community members and San Diego School Board member John Evans says SDSU is denying thousands of San Diego public school students access to their local university.

He says the sudden policy change is unfair to high school seniors.

“It's just too short notice,” Evans said. “So the seniors who have been preparing for years to go to San Diego State are just finding out within a few weeks notice that the admissions criteria are changing and will have to look at other alternatives. This change that is being unilaterally done is really breaking a bond with the San Diego community.”

More than 2,000 of this year's first-time freshman were admitted under the guarantee -- that's more than half of the freshman class.

Evans is now drafting a board resolution calling on the university to restore the guarantee immediately. The San Diego Unified School Board is expected to vote on that resolution next week.